Mystery Box

This is an art book that weaves the photo-collage art of JC MacQueen with lines of poetry by Nancy A. Fandel to create a story of the mystery of our world.

Artist J.C. MacQueen first featured his large black-and-white silkscreen prints on Chicago's Mass Transit Authority platforms, and brought to life a burgeoning Public Art movement. MacQueen's installations were placed alongside traditional advertising, introducing art as frank, cultural commentary in a mass communication, fine arts milieu. These pieces now serve as the focus for his trilogy, Mystery Box. A graduate of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, MacQueen is a recipient of the Illinois Artis Fellowship Award and Chairman's Grant. He received his Masters of Fine Arts from Vermont College, and he works today in his studios in the U.S. and abroad. Poet, designer, publisher, and teacher, Nancy A. Fandel is also a scholar of 13th-century mystic teacher and poet Jell'aludin Rumi. Fandel rose to prominence in the 1990s as a publications designer and editor of small- and large-press books and magazines. Here, in her most recent endeavor, Fandel deftly weaves a story of life, love, and mystery by merging her lines of poetry with the inspiring images of J.C. MacQueen. Translated lines of the writings of Rumi bookend the journey. Fandel is the longtime editor in chief of the renowned Arts Patronage Series, a group of national directories of funding sources for artists in all disciplines. Today, Fandel is a professor of communication, literature, and creative writing at colleges in the U.S. and abroad.